This question just made me sad... imagine stumbling into a forum where someone asked if "Should Women Wear Pants". Please keep in mind, I am not casting aspersions upon the OP in any way and I hope it's clear that I'm not. It's just... imagine how crappy some culture must be, for there to be the need for anybody at all to ask such a question, or to have that subject require a debate.

Hmm I generally get why the op has phrased the question like this, however I would disagree with it anyway, because Men can and do wear makeup. Granted where I'm from not many do, but it shouldn't be something to worry about too much. However I can also see why it would shock some. (perhaps even myself, a little bit) When something has carried a 'feminine' connotation to it for so long, it can be hard to break free from that perception. For example, men don't typically wear dresses, and they are in fact seen as purely feminine attire. For the sake of Men's rights, I would never judge a man who chose to wear makeup. It annoys me that society has sorted different things and delegated them as typically a female/male thing.
I could go on, but I'll stop here for now. What do you guys think?

I don't have any problem with men wearing makeup. If it was about wearing dress on the other hand ... not that I really have anything against that either, but as it is now it could only be for very special occasions. Like Muslims wearing caftan or such. Anything else and people's general perseption of men wearing dress, would force me to consider him a trans person or a cross dresser, something slightly awkward like that.

What I do have a problem with is this thread. Every time I poke into this part of the forum I'm almost feeling bad about the question. I wonder how I can sabotage this offensive subject. No just kidding, no sabotage just a silent wish that this thread will go away.

Why should women be the only ones to enjoy it? We should fight gender roles like this, they are harmful in the long run. If we want equality between all genders, we should allow men to wear makeup, dresses, act/dress feminine, etc.

Why should women be the only ones to enjoy it? We should fight gender roles like this, they are harmful in the long run. If we want equality between all genders, we should allow men to wear makeup, dresses, act/dress feminine, etc.

I do appreciate the ALL genders, and wonder if I can derail this discussion by asking how many we have? ... of genders.

I do appreciate the ALL genders, and wonder if I can derail this discussion by asking how many we have? ... of genders.

What is your definition of gender?

If the definition is "the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones)" then I would say the answer is either one or infinite.

I have a very live and let live outlook/attitude, so I still don't fully understand why this is a debate. People are way to invested in what others are doing. They need to focus on themselves instead of others, and mind their own business. Especially when others are doing something so completely harmless, not commiting a crime, or doing any real wrong.

Am I the only one who thinks it's completely ridiculous that some people are so invested in what others are doing, whether it effects them or not?

Am I the only one who thinks it's completely ridiculous that some people are so invested in what others are doing, whether it effects them or not?

It's one of those horrible truths in life that some people's self-esteem and valuation is so entirely gained by referencing other people that they can't feel like they're worthwhile at all except by comparison, conflict, or competition with others. They can't look in the mirror and just say "I'm okay, and I don't care about other people" because in their minds it's all about "I'm okay, as long as I'm better than someone else, as long other people fear or respect me, and/or I'm the best by whatever metric I hold respect for of all other people."

Part of that's just society. It's set up that way with "winners and losers," measured by thousands of different little things. I think there's a definite chicken or egg question though.

I don't understand why men can't wear make-up and why anyone should care if they aren't hurting anyone. It's a personal choice and to be honest if a guy want to wear make-up no skin of my back...People need to learn to just accept everyone as an individual and move on. My friends son loves wearing make-up and he is 8, the sad thing about it is he gets called gay and a sissy, what kind of would do we live in...sheesh!!!

People need to learn to just accept everyone as an individual and move on. My friends son loves wearing make-up and he is 8, the sad thing about it is he gets called gay and a sissy, what kind of would do we live in...sheesh!!!

We live in the kind of world where people think calling someone gay is negative.

Meanwhile, when I point out how very shitty we are collectively I've always got some yahoo trying to tell me I should see more good in people. I agree with that, I should. Unfortunately I do not because there's precious little good in people to see. The world is what it is, and what it is is something that waffles more between an atrocity and a tragedy than rainbows and cotton candy.

Well, it's not a matter of should society allow men to wear makeup, and more so, should men allow men to wear makeup. The only reason it is considered a taboo in society, for men to express femininity in the first place, is because of the misogyny men have put into place. Men have always been allowed to wear makeup, it's just historic anti-feminism and internalized misogyny comes into play as to why they don't. The best example is asking a man to hold your purse for a few minutes, and note how far away they hold it out with their arm. Operative conditioning and internalized misogyny has a long way to go before we see men wearing makeup become a popular notion, I'd say.

We live in the kind of world where people think calling someone gay is negative.

Meanwhile, when I point out how very shitty we are collectively I've always got some yahoo trying to tell me I should see more good in people. I agree with that, I should. Unfortunately I do not because there's precious little good in people to see. The world is what it is, and what it is is something that waffles more between an atrocity and a tragedy than rainbows and cotton candy.

On the other hand, it can be taken as shorthand form for, "I'm incredibly immature, don't bother with me" when someone thinks calling someone homosexual* is an insult.
And yet I still find myself completely agreeing with you about how shitty humanity is as a species.... ho-hum. It feels like the older you get, the less enchanted by those promises of "good in people" you** get. I really wish I didn't, I wish I could rebuke you with X Y Z sources, but.... eh.

*I say "calling someone HOMOSEXUAL" because I do actually believe that the lexicon is changing in a way that "gay" can be completely divorced from homosexuality and act as a stand-in for another sort of insult, context being the indicator, of course.
**General sense of "you". It's annoying that I have to include this but I've had a number of people come up and defend their actual private person against a blatant generalization to the point where I'm incredibly sick of it.

"The more you know, the sadder you get."~ Stephen Colbert
"Science literacy is a vaccine against the charlatans of the world that would exploit your ignorance."~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson
"I'm not going to censor myself to comfort your ignorance." ~ Jon Stewart

I think "allow" is the wrong word used here, I think society should simply be OK with it and not care. There are quite many men who are cross-dresser and who like to wear "typical" women's clothes and make-up. Recently I read an interesting and pretty erotic story from the perspective of someone who likes to indulge in this kind of please, and I must say it's an interesting read. All in all, I would say Let them be.

It is none of my business what someone else wears. "Society" needs to STFU, and let people be who they are (so long as they are harmless). If a man wants to wear make-up, the only problem are the jerks who will give him a miserable time about it.